Ford’s hot hatch is due to be refreshed after four years on sale, with a design overhaul at each end.
Just a few weeks after we caught sight of an updated Ford Fiesta Active running around on European roads, camouflaged test mules of the high-spec ST-Line and entry-level variants have broken cover, previewed some of what to expect from the 2022 Ford Fiesta ST.
As was the case with the Focus mule spotted recently, the Fiesta looks to hide a new-look front end under its bulky camouflage. Unusually, the supermini’s front grille looks to have been reduced, rather than expanded, for the facelifted car, and new designs have been ushered in for the headlights and lower bumper.
At this stage, changes to the rear end look to be a lot more subtle; the layout of the disguise suggests we will see new-shape brake light clusters and potentially a restyled bootlid. The jacked-up Active variant, meanwhile, wears chunky body cladding and roof rails and rides higher than the standard Fiesta.
A more subtle model year update in 2020 added a new 48V mild-hybrid petrol option that Australia never saw. Ford’s smallest car is now powered exclusively by a 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine – with or without electric assistance – in its standard form, with a choice of power outputs. The Fiesta ST performance variant uses a 147kW non-hybridised 1.5-litre turbo unit.
There have not been any indications of significant alterations to this powertrain line-up for the facelift. The newer Puma crossover, which shares the bulk of its underpinnings with the Fiesta, uses the same engines, and the lack of any warning stickers or obvious charging ports means these protoypes aren’t testing a new plug-in hybrid powertrain.
Ford recently announced plans, however, for its European passenger car line-up to be entirely electric by 2030, and as part of that, it will introduce a PHEV version of every model by the middle of 2026.
Felix Page